birthday party. For their speeches, each
of the girls really owned the stage. Tegan
was cool as a nervously ambitious woman
about to get her big break, Kitty worked
depth into her character by adding to the
ditziness a fatigue with her steady,
married life. Lucy was a convincingly
loved-up psychiatrist who got me thinking
with a few philosophical points, and
Gussy's harrowing account of discovering
(during her work as a coroner) that their
friend, Sephy, was dead caused me to
catch my breath. Overall, it really was
simply brilliant, congratulations to all
involved.
The first performance of the second night
was from Bishop Fox. Oscar Harding
wrote the play, Smith, as well as directing
it and performing, and won Best Original
Script with Gussy Hydleman. The story
begins with John Doe (played by Harry
Heal) at home in his apartment, being
interrupted by a group of men who say
they are previous incarnations of 'Smith',
who have all died, but somehow live on
through the next incarnation. It had a
distinctly Inceptionfeel to it, and credit
has to go to Henry Dufosee for being the
creepy Australian drugged-up lunatic who
kept the play firmly in the weird during the
dream scenes. Comic relief arrived in the
form of Rob Ellis' French soprano, and
Harry Heal gelled the storyline together
with a warm human element in an
ambitious production.
Following Bishop Fox was Meynell's zany
take on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Well, the set was frankly awesome. I
mean, let's be honest, when the stage is
covered in sweets which are distributed at
the end in a pantomime-like manner, it's
enough to break out anyone's inner sixyear
old. Emily Albery was a suitably silly
Violet Beauregarde, Charlie Webb was a
brilliant parody of the title hero, and Jess
Kennedy was perfectly nuts as Mr Wonka,
glittery hat, cane, creepiness and all.
Costumes were great, rewarded with the
Best Costume Prize, and credit has to go
to the Oompa Loompa girls who braved
orange faces, stockings, and doing that
dance in public to add an extra bit of
wacky pizzazz.
Finally, to round off this year's House
Drama, Tuckwell gave us Cherries Bizarre.
This was a well-oiled piece of surrealist
comedy, winning the prize for Most
Innovative Play, and like Oscar Harding,
Hayden Tyler did well to convey what
could have been an unpopular genre to an
overall inexperienced audience. It's
difficult to explain the storyline of the play
- basically, Rob Duncan had some blue
smarties, Hayden and Ben Wagstaff were
mystically conjoined janitors, Joe
Merriweather was in love with a bookcase
that was really a bucket and Cameron
Barclay got injured a lot. Stunts were the
name of the day, with perfect timing
speaking volumes about the amount of
effort involved in putting the play together.
One side of the stage fed into the other -
Hayden threw his broom off on one side,
and caught it when it flew back in on the
other, etc. The stunts were hilarious and
perfectly timed, and adding to the comedy
was the banter built up between Hayden
and Rob and Joe's borderline lunatic love
affair with his bookcase, as they went
from reunion to betrayal to heartbreak.
An excellent end to another outstanding
House Drama Festival.
Aluredian 55
Jake Fleming plays the
title role in King Alfred's
production of Sherlock
… and credit has to
go to the Oompa
Loompa girls who
braved orange faces,
stockings, and doing
that dance in public
to add an extra bit of
wacky pizzazz.